Friday, June 03, 2005

Deep Throat, the movie

The outing of Deep Throat is undoubtedly the biggest news story of the week and rightfully so. Deep Throat played a dramatic role in modern American history and it's amazing that four men, Bernstein, Woodward, Bradlee and Felt, were able to keep his identity a secret for thirty-three years.

So, as the news media are in a frenzy to learn more about Mark Felt and get interviews with Woodward and Bernstein, it occurs to me that the origins of the name "Deep Throat" may have been forgotten.

Deep Throat,the movie was released in theaters in the summer of 1972, about the same time as the breakin at the Watergate office complex. The 61 minute X-rated film starring Linda Lovelace had a production budget of $22,500 and scenes starring Lovelace were shot in just six days in Miami. Regarded as the most successful pornographic film of all time, estimates of total revenue vary from $100 million to $600 million.

Roger Ebert, the popular movie critic, did have some comments about the movie's total gross when he reviewed Inside Deep Throat, a documentary film about the movie. Ebert explains that in the 1970s when Deep Throat was made and released, most of the porn theaters were owned by the mob and they probably "inflated box office receipts as a way of laundering income from drugs and prostitution" so in fact Deep Throat did not really gross $600 million, even though that was the box office tally.

The film had attained such status in 1972 pop culture that Post reporter Bob Woodward chose the name for his secret source. Little more than a voice in a dark D.C. parking garage, Deep Throat provided "deep background" for Woodward and Berstein's reports.